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Message: [QUOTE="Bigboote, post: 2822187, member: 7631"] Bingo! I have a problem with the way pitchers are being taught. They're encouraged from a very young age to throw as hard as they can. They're throwing too hard too early. This means they continue to throw harder than is good for them (or the guys they hit). Tommy John surgery is more and more common as a result of this, and there's a cascading effect. A pitcher throwing 200 innings is the equivalent of 300 innings 40 years ago. It used to be common for a few pitchers to throw 25-30 complete games in a season, now I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't 30 complete games in the AL in a season. The long reliever and even middle reliever are pretty much a thing of the past -- relievers don't often throw more than one inning apiece, and seldom more than two. So fear of pitchers throwing too many innings is indirectly responsible for the three-hour average game length. You just need to dial your speed back a few percent to both gain much more control and be much easier on your arm. Sandy Koufax went from being a journeyman to a great pitcher by taking just a few mph off his fastball. Unfortunately, he'd already done too much damage to his arm. The other thing that happens when players are young is that they use aluminum bats. The Al bat has a sweet spot that extends much closer to the hands. That's why pitchers don't learn to control their inside pitches when they're learning to pitch. Anything middle-in is much easier to launch with an Al bat than a wooden bat, so there's no motivation to learn to keep hitters away from the plate. I would love to see two-tiered leagues with one tier using wooden bats, beginning whenever kids are really learning to pitch these days. [I didn't catch a curve ball till traveling league (13 yo); no idea when they're starting now.] [/QUOTE]

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